""Indeed, I look forward to it too. If you continue your adventures out here you can decorate it with stuffed creatures you manage to defeat. I've learned that many nobles do it, but most only get it for hunters."

"Indeed I am certain that this castle will very much have the feel of a museum, both in terms of recording the natural history of the area, but also as a place of learning where the people can come and open their minds to the possibilities of the unlimited!"

Zorestar spends the evening enjoying the company of Alicia and the others around the common room at Oleg's. However, he keeps an eye out to see if Ganit delivers anything to his Caravan.

"Indeed." she nods and gives a smile. "It's also a mark of conquest, proof to those who want to go to war against you that you are able to look after yourself. Not to mention, some members of your group would like to have bed covers made from animal furs of pelts."

Zorestar:

The items Ganit dropped off you find under your bed. One is a unholy symbol to the demon lord Orcus. A lord of the undead. He is under Urgathoa in power, but still has the powers of a Deity and able to grant spells to his servants, but as he is an obscure symbol of woreship, not many people follow him and there are very few cults, if any on Golarian.

The Hermit Ganit D'Artain wrote:

As evening turns to dusk, Ganit drops by Zorestar's wagon with Mordelle's knife and (un)holy symbol and stuffs them beneath the wizard's feather bed. Afterwards he wanders a short way down to the campgrounds to stake out a good vantage point on the caravan. Remaining inconspicuous in the hustle of the settlers, he rolls a cigarette, lights it and watching for any activity.

You don't notice anyone spying on you, however Gwen is looking at the carriage in disbelief. She doesn't appear to have spotted you and seems bemused at it's exsistance, though she does seem to be looking for someone.

Carina Stigard wrote:

Although she would prefer getting on the road sooner rather than later, Carina heads out to the camps and tents and socializes with the settlers.

Diplomacy: 1d20+6

Quite a few of the settlers would like to settle down and take advantage of helping the fledgling nation, however many are sceptical at how long it'll love. This is the Stolen Lands afterall where no matter what, each civilisation that has arrived here has fallen due to natural distasters, fey turning on the population, mysterious diseases, wild animals gone mad and attacking humans for no reason, barbarian tribes invading and so on. Most consider it cursed land and building a kingdom here will invite trouble.

Quite a few of the settlers would like to settle down and take advantage of helping the fledgling nation, however many are sceptical at how long it'll love. This is the Stolen Lands afterall where no matter what, each civilisation that has arrived here has fallen due to natural distasters, fey turning on the population, mysterious diseases, wild animals gone mad and attacking humans for no reason, barbarian tribes invading and so on. Most consider it cursed land and building a kingdom here will invite trouble.

As I go through the gathered settlers with a smile, I tell them that we plan on creating a nation that will not fall. I remind them that those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat it. And that among our group we have people very knowledgeable about the history of this land. Unlike our predecessors, we have learned, and will continue to learn, from those who came before us so that rather than repeating their failures, we will lead the nation to success and greatness.

"Hello again Delilah. We didn't have much chance to speak on the road as I was riding ahead. My name is Jameson Addercop the Fourth, but please call me James. I stand on no ceremony. Tell me again, how did you reconnect with Ganit?"

"I'm sorry, me and my brother had a rough reunion." she admitted freely, shrugging as she does. "You have such a noble name. Are you a real knight? Along with that man over there." she pointed in Bronwyn's direction.

Jameson shakes his head at the question.

"I am sorry to hear that, though I am glad you've found each other now. Family is everything. I don't know about the nobility of my name, but I am no knight, just a man with a lance and a horse. Sir Raslov is our elected leader and he does have some knightly qualities about him, I will agree."

"Well, my friends, you must kindly excuse me for the evening. I've had a lovely day and I now I must go and have a lovely night sleep. Good night, ladies and gentlemen."

Zorestar stands up and prepares to leave, giving Alicia a soft expression and a warm smile before departing. "Good night, my dear Alicia! I will see you tomorrow before we depart! Sleep well!"

He then returns to his new caravan where he searches the room for anything Ganit may have left.

Perception 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Unable to see anything out of the ordinary, Zorestar then undresses and climbs under the sheets of his new bed.

"Ahh! At last! This will be just like my bed back at home."

However as Zorestar lies there, something seems to be very lumpy in the middle of his bed and he cannot seem to get comfortable. He tosses and turns on his mattress for a good hour until finally he can take it no longer.

What is wrong with this bed? It feels softer but there is also a feeling that is reminiscent of a tree root right here in the middle of the bed!

The wizard waves his hands in a quick somatic gesture and cast light with the following words, "Orada ışık olsun."

Once light illuminates his caravan, he gets up and inspects under the mattress of the bed to see what is this matter.

What in Golarion is this?

Zorestar pulls out a knife and a strange evil looking unholy symbol.

"In the name of Nethys, who put such sharp deadly objects under my bed?!"

Oh Nethys! What is this? I wonder.

Zorestar takes his time and inspects the artifact with great interest and care.

Hmm? I wonder if Ganit did visit my caravan and leave these? He certainly is a rather stealthy sort. I would not have guessed he even made it in here, but this would explain his strange questions earlier. I'll have to see him first thing in the morning.

After inspecting the inscriptions, the wizard waves his hands over the items and utters the words, "Sihirli Bilinsin!" to cast detect magic upon them.

Spellcraft 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

After studying the artifacts for a while he places them in a drawer built into his bedside desk and climbs back into bed. He dismisses his light spell and pulls the blanket up to his neck, letting his beard remain outside of the covers.

"Now for some real sleep!" He mumbles to himself as he closes his eyes and begins to fall asleep.

In the last few days the ranger had undergone much more social confrontation than he felt he deserved so when he noticed Gwen gawking at the nobleman's mobile workshop, he did his best to remain still and unseen while she was in his sight despite his quickened heartbeat and sudden self-awareness.

Stealth: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

The druid had the right of it, should have left when he did. She's young and that elf blood makes her younger still. Damn the whiskey and damn her scent, I may have been the one who was drunk but I still took advantage of the girl; of her naivety. There's too many of them now... Just too many.

"Dammit Zorestar," he curses under his breath. "Sooner you get to your wagon, sooner I can leave."

Ganit shifts his weight uncomfortably and begins rolling another cigarette if only just to busy his hands.

Just need to make it through the night. We're on the trail tomorrow so it's only tonight I'll have to avoid her.

In the last few days the ranger had undergone much more social confrontation than he felt he deserved so when he noticed Gwen gawking at the nobleman's mobile workshop, he did his best to remain still and unseen while she was in his sight despite his quickened heartbeat and sudden self-awareness.

Stealth: 1d20+10

The druid had the right of it, should have left when he did. She's young and that elf blood makes her younger still. Damn the whiskey and damn her scent, I may have been the one who was drunk but I still took advantage of the girl; of her naivety. There's too many of them now... Just too many.

"Dammit Zorestar," he curses under his breath. "Sooner you get to your wagon, sooner I can leave."

Ganit shifts his weight uncomfortably and begins rolling another cigarette if only just to busy his hands.

Just need to make it through the night. We're on the trail tomorrow so it's only tonight I'll have to avoid her.

was going on the other stealth roll, she certainly hasn't seen you or otherwise you'd probably be getting that typical hand-on-hips look.

Also, I'm ready to get down to those last few hexes ASAP. We still need to revisit the Boggard with one of our casters serving as a language proxy (tongues/comprehend language/share language/telepathy/whatev's) and were we checking on the unicorn again? Can't recall.

Also, I'm ready to get down to those last few hexes ASAP. We still need to revisit the Boggard with one of our casters serving as a language proxy (tongues/comprehend language/share language/telepathy/whatev's) and were we checking on the unicorn again? Can't recall.

if I remember, I reminded you of the unicorn and you guys were somewhat interested in looking into it again as it was dead, but you saw no physical wounds that could've caused it to die. Also the Boggard because he's living nearby, and you have no idea of his intentions because he only understands 5 words of common, making communication difficult.

In the last few days the ranger had undergone much more social confrontation than he felt he deserved so when he noticed Gwen gawking at the nobleman's mobile workshop, he did his best to remain still and unseen while she was in his sight despite his quickened heartbeat and sudden self-awareness.

Stealth: 1d20+10

The druid had the right of it, should have left when he did. She's young and that elf blood makes her younger still. Damn the whiskey and damn her scent, I may have been the one who was drunk but I still took advantage of the girl; of her naivety. There's too many of them now... Just too many.

"Dammit Zorestar," he curses under his breath. "Sooner you get to your wagon, sooner I can leave."

Ganit shifts his weight uncomfortably and begins rolling another cigarette if only just to busy his hands.

Just need to make it through the night. We're on the trail tomorrow so it's only tonight I'll have to avoid her.

Ganit makes a easy evasion, Gwen knowing nothing more and the new day starts up with some more artisans arriving and everyone gearing up and ready to go.

Zorestar wakes up. He stretches his arms in bed with a smile on his face, content from the wonderful night's sleep he enjoyed. He climbs out of bed and gets dressed. He then proceeds outs of his caravan to find some breakfast and see if any of the others are awake yet.

Proposed marching order. Please feel free to change. Being the new guy, I leave the direction up to the others.
Jameson
Bron
Carina
Zorestar
Telias
Ganit

We go down to the Boggart via the unmarked hex next to it. The shoot over to the unicorn hex and return to the fort across the southern most mapped squares hitting the last unmarked in the process. This should be the shortest route.

Marching order:
Ganit - Advanced Scout
James - so that he has a clear charge at anything
Carina
Zorestar and his soon to be flaming wagon
Telias
Bron - decent perception and makes a stronger rear guard than Telias

As you make your way you notice that the wagon is not as fast as your horses and so you all slow down for a bit to find a decent travel through the heavily wooded areas. You make good ground, but have to stop over 10 hours, arriving at the old bandit camp, now dismantled from lack of maintainance as no one has been here in weeks and you all sit down and make camp.

The next day goes on fine as you continue your way though the forest, past the temple of Erastil and then strait to the Boggard's lair. It is currently 7pm and the Boggard and two Slurks are nearby in the ruin, hissing at your approch and the Boggard coming out of cover, staring in your direction and wondering what you're doing here.

True, but we did not have a big sign that says burn me before. I am pretty sure that is what I had them paint on the side of Zorestar's wagon.

I assume that Zorestar will cast Comprehend Languages then. We do not have anyone that can speak Boggard. But with Zorestar's 22 Int and 3 ranks in Linguistics, he might be able to communicate to some extent.

I walk up next to Zorestar if the bird man is still off hunting field mice. I assume that Bron would also be with us so that we have a blade nearby if something goes awry.

Zorestar, we would have told you about the Boggard on the trip down. I assume you would have memorized comprehend languages. And hopefully DM Aron will allow a Linguistics roll to see if you can make yourself understood in return.

I am not sure how DM Aron feels, but I am not fond of retconning spell decisions like this, so please try to keep me aware of the situation before we get there. I do have an empty slot, that I have purposely left blank, so Zorestar can open his book for some quick study and memorize comprehend languages.

Turning to his friends, he says, "Give me a few minutes and I will should be able to understand whatever he says. I just need to remind myself how that spell goes. Just don't draw your blades and look aggressive."

Zorestar climbs into the back of his caravan and pulls out his spell book. About fifteen minutes later he waves his hands in a quick somatic gesture as he sprinkles soot and salt over the place. Concentrating, he utters the words, "Dilleri anlaşılabilir olsun" to complete casting comprehend languages.

Stepping outside of the caravan, Zorestars asks, "Have they said anything yet?"

Sorry, I thought you knew why we were going to the Boggard. The characters would have told you over the day plus ride getting here. We are doing three things on this excursion. Two of which are tying up loose ends - (1) talking with the Boggard that is living in the middle of our nation and (2) seeing if we can discern why the unicorn was lying dead in the middle of an area of corrupted vegetation. The third thing we are going to do is map out the last two squares which will technically finish the first AP I believe. I think we killed the Tuskgutter in one of them and have not explored the other at all yet.
.
This was the whole purpose for this trip, it is up the DM Aron, but I am pretty sure that Zorestar would have been told of all this. While Carina may like to give the uppity mage a hard time, she would not have concealed information like this which would clearly benefit the entire party.

Comprehend languages does not allow you to speak his language, only understand it. To them it'll sound like some gutteral tongue, but to you it'll make sense. I'll allow you a linguistics roll and to take some time speaking to him and maybe catching a word or two and communicating that way.

the boggard seems to step back for a moemnt, but something about the pitch of Bronwyn's voice of manages to get him to relax and he takes the bread, eating it and having a odd expression on his face as he does before then saying something in a gutteral tongue.

"You no go flies? Dragonflies good." he speaks and looks to the wizard, noticing he did something, but the look of confusion on his face makes it more obvious that he doesn't know anything.

I look over at Bron and shake my head.
I do not think your good looks are going to work on him. Lets see if Zorestar can communicate with him. I think the mage cast some spell so that he can at least understand the frogman.

"A boggart? Certainly. A boggart’s natural form is that of a small humanoid, resembling a young gnome, halfling, or goblin. At Vortexarium, I also learned that it has one other form: that of a small, immature will-o’-wisp. However, you really don't want to know about that do you? This toad like creature with the warts and greenish skin is more likely to be a boggard."

"Despite their identical first syllable, similar second syllable,and profoundly different last letter, they are actually rather different creatures. Lairing on the fringes of civilized lands, dwelling in impenetrable swamps, diseased marshlands, and the inundated ruins left in the wake of greater civilizations, boggards embody the brutishness and superstition of primitive life. Existing in far greater variety than the races who merely consider them barbaric and uncouth “toadfolk,” the contempt most civilized races hold for them is far from unfounded. In their marshy realms boggards raise croaking prayers to merciless priest-kings, ravenous idiot demigods, and their fecund demon goddess Gogunta. Yet for all their overtures of piety and culture, among boggards the strongest rules and the weakest become slaves or, worse, meals for their bestial kin. Few know much of the mysterious and murderous ways of boggards, but those who have survived their encounters tell of violent hunts, cannibalistic feasts, ancient things sleeping amid the muck, and much, much worse."

"To be honest, whether this was a Boggart or a Boggard, I believe you would not want this creature living nearby. I am happy to continue trying to communicate with it, but I am not sure we could trust it, whatever it said."

Zorestar's improv on the boggard language seems to have gotten through, though broken and he appears to have a hurt look on his face and rubs his left hand.
"Me wanted to be chief. I ate sacred dragon flies, but me no go stronger. They hurt me...bad. They want me dead, so me escape at night." he explains in his own tongue. "Me want peace, safe from tribe." he points westward to make a point. It's known that there in the Slough there are tribes of Boggards. Usually when you encounter a boggard they attack first and ask questions later, but this one came forward asking for truce when you first met him.

DC 12 Heal check:

It appears as if his hand was broken at somepoint, but it has repaired itself over time.

It didn't attack us last time we were here, then again it wasn't expecting us. If it wanted to protect itself from us coming again it would have rigged the place with traps. The slurks should do the trick though. Looks like its hand was busted up pretty bad. Likely not as dexterous. The slurks are the real threat. They're beasts. They'll fight without a master. Cripple the boggard's gimp hand, he'll be useless; kill his pets, he'll be defenseless. Things go south: toss the fool my ax, get my bow and stick as many arrows in those ugly, tusked frogs as possible...

"Perhaps you are correct Zorestar. It would seem this one is an outcast from his tribe, although no more noble than they by the sounds of it. We should ride to this tribe and clear them out if they are as much a threat as you say."

Carina just watches the strange creature: I do not know what this ugly thing wants, but unless it is capable of living within out laws, then it cannot stay. And from what you have told us Zorestar, this race is almost incapable of respecting law and the good of others.

"Me wanted to be chief. I ate sacred dragon flies, but me no go stronger. They hurt me...bad. They want me dead, so me escape at night." he explains in his own tongue. "Me want peace, safe from tribe."

"What hurt you? The dragonfly? The tribe? Why would the tribe want you dead for trying to eat the dragonfly? Who do you want peace with?"

"Where do the other boggard's live? Where do they live? Point the way for us? Where is the home of the tribe?"

Zorestar turns to the others and asks, "Can any of you determine if he is speaking the truth? Better yet, can you determine if this reptile gives off an aura of evil?"

Bit of a mess up on my end. I'll repost as I forgot to mention the reason he was beaten.

"Me wanted to be chief. I ate sacred dragon flies, but me no go stronger. The chief laughed and turned them against me. They...hurt me bad. In front of all. They want me dead, so me escape at night." he explains in his own tongue. "Me want peace, safe from tribe." he points westward to make a point. It's known that there in the Slough there are tribes of Boggards. Usually when you encounter a boggard they attack first and ask questions later, but this one came forward asking for truce when you first met him.

Westward is an area the East Sellen River flows which is composed mostly of Swampland and known as the Hooktongue Slough. It is a vital trade route from the south and due to it's importance they send down a large group of diplomats and high-ranking soldiers into the area to ensure the trade route is open and safe. It's unlikely the boggards would leave their swamps and would be more interested in the humans that are closer to home.

Zorestar recounts what he hears and adds, "Well, from what I can understand, this one appears to be a bit of misfit. He actually seems to want peace. Although I would be cautious around him, I wonder if we can use him to our advantage against the tribe in the Slough. With the trade route through there, I am not sure a tribe of Boggards living right along the route will help trade at all. Let me see if I can find a name to call this one."

Zorestar tries to find out if the creature has a name. "What is your name? Name? What do they call you? I am Zorestar! Who are you?"

The trade route with Varnhold is to the East. The Boggards are to the West. Unless you're on about the East Sellen River, it isn't your issue but for those of the west to deal with instead.

Through a bit more conversing with your linguistics in picking up bits and peices he says that his name is Garuum. He asks for peace as he just wants to stay here. No tribe he has no interest in raiding.

Carina simply shrugs: It makes no difference to me. It seems wrong to kill this thing if it is not harming anyone, but what happens when it regains its health? Will it attempt to take over its boggard tribe and make war on us and the merchants of the land?

Garuum hasn't commited anything worthy of punishment or retribution. Zorestar, let him know that as long as he doesn't hurt any person or steal from them, he will be left in peace.

Looking at Ganit and talking with a lower voice, the knight adds:

He may yet to prove himself useful. If we develop problems with the boggards to the west his inside knowledge can be the difference between victory and defeat. If we pursue friendly relations with our neighbors to the west that same information may very well help solidify an alliance.

After thinking for a couple seconds he finally finishes his reasoning.

And if we really get into an armed conflict with these boggard people, we would do well to defeat their leader and maybe install another one in its place - a friendlier one who owes us a couple favors.

" Zorestar, let him know that as long as he doesn't hurt any person or steal from them, he will be left in peace."

Zorestar translates for the Boggard the best he can. "Garuum, we will leave you in peace, but you must not hurt or steal. No hurt. No steal. Live in peace!"

Bron wrote:

"He may yet to prove himself useful. If we develop problems with the boggards to the west his inside knowledge can be the difference between victory and defeat. If we pursue friendly relations with our neighbors to the west that same information may very well help solidify an alliance."

"That is wise thinking, Sir Bronwyn. Besides, it does seem rather cruel to kill him. I must be careful not to judge the creature based on his repulsive and vile looks. Perhaps this kind act and a change in his regular environment may aid him in becoming a more peaceful creature. Consequently, this will lead us to a more peaceful nation."

Carina listens to the men discussing how to proceed, once they have gone down the road of making peace with an entire race of chaotic evil frogs, she interrupts:

I do not think that the problem is with one injured boggard. The question is where is his village and tribe? While this one may seem peaceful at this time, I doubt his toad friends will be so interested in peace.